Futuresonic and the Met Office present bubble blowing games that enable people across the city of Manchester to test air flow circulation, and by sharing the results online, enable the Met Office to get a snapshot of the Urban Heat Island phenomenon.

Futuresonic, the Natural History Museum and artist Christian Nold present a participatory project to discover and map the city's urban wildlife in new ways, using a 'Manchester Rover' vehicle, a lo-tech version of the Mars Rover.

An audio walk will take you on a night-time journey to experience 100 years of climate change in 100m. A hypnotic induction will instill a sense of harmony with the environment, built, urban and the self.

Related events

In addition to the three participation projects, there is a range of other, exciting Environment 2.0 events presented by Futuresonic 2009.

Creative Projects Survey

Futuresonic 2009's art programme features 30 international artists and 10 world premiers. Including a public recital of the recent IPCC report, an art device for striking it rich by prospecting for oil in the city centre, 150 oak saplings in the gallery grown from artist Joseph Beuys' acorns, and an installation of ceramic plates with portraits of Presidents created by exposure to smog. Artists here avoid cliches and address environmental sustainability in ways both forceful and irreverent.

Futuresonic's world leading conference, the Social Technologies Summit, features a strand on the Environment 2.0 theme. Conference events include Jamais Cascio, founder of Worldchanging.org, James Marriott, founder of PLATFORM, plus a series of free talks on Friday 15 May featuring Transition City Manchester and speakers from the Met Office and Natural History Museum.

Is your organisation or group interested in developing mass participation projects on the environment? On Saturday 16 May there is a one day unConference event on innovative forms of participatory mass participation on the environment. It is free and open to everybody who signs up in advance. Invite your networks, and propose a discussion around your particular area of interest.

Heat map image courtesy of the SCORCHIO project, Manchester University